Kabul, Dec 14 (AHN) Police in western Afghanistan's Herat province seized 16 kg of opium and detained two alleged smugglers, a provincial police official said on Sunday.

According to the official, the suspects had hidden the contraband inside a vehicle's secret compartments and were attempting to transport it out of the province when police intercepted the car on Saturday. The drugs were discovered during the search, and the vehicle's owners were arrested, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The operation follows recent anti-narcotics efforts in other parts of Afghanistan.

Authorities reiterated that counter-narcotics police will spare no effort to curb drug production and trafficking across post-war Afghanistan.

On December 11, the Ministry of Interior Affairs in separate statements stated that Afghan counter-narcotics police have arrested 31 suspected drug smugglers and seized 258 kg of illicit drugs during operations across several provinces.

The seized contraband included 194 kg of opium, 35 kg of hashish, and 29 kg of methamphetamine. Operations were conducted in the western province of Herat and the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan, where four individuals were detained, according to the ministry.

Separately, in a series of counter-narcotics operations conducted in the capital Kabul, police arrested 27 suspects accused of involvement in the sale, purchase, and smuggling of illicit drugs.

The Afghan government has banned poppy cultivation, drug production, and trafficking, vowing to continue its crackdown until the country, once a leading global source of opium, becomes drug-free.

On December 10, provincial police spokesman Ehsanullah Kamgar said Afghan police arrested an individual on charges of drug smuggling and confiscated 16 kg of opium in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province.

The arrest took place during an operation in the Kishim district of the province. Police found the suspect in possession of the contraband and have taken him into custody for further investigation, the official said.

On November 30, local police said that a consignment of illegal drugs was seized in western Afghanistan's Nimroz province and its owner taken into custody.

The alleged drug smuggler, according to the official, was attempting to take 3 kg of methamphetamine out of the province, but police foiled the attempt and took him into custody, spokesman for the provincial police office Mawlawi Gul Mohammad Qudrat said.